National Network for Equitable Library Service

A full-colour compendium of Toronto's 'Brief Leafs'

Over the past 100 years, close to 1,000 players have suited up for at least one game with the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs, and more than 250 did in the most turbulent era in club history, 1978-1999. In that time span, the Leafs made more than 300 trades, signed 20 free agents, and claimed eight players on waivers while almost 100 draft selections changed hands in addition to dozens of Toronto's own picks.

Inside the controversial and newsworthy issue of concussions in American football — Muchnick’s trademark no-holds-barred investigation reveals the corruption and scandals in real time

Traumatic brain injury in football is not incidental, but an inevitable and central aspect of the sport. Starting in high school, through college, and into the NFL, young players face repeated head trauma, and those sustained injuries create lifelong cognitive and functional difficulties.

The Benoit murder-suicide in 2007 was one of the most shocking stories of the year, and a seminal event in the history of wrestling. It laid bare the devastating prevalence of steroids and its effects on users.

In order to tackle the whole story, dig up the facts, and connect the dots, Irvin Muchnick gives the most sensational scandal in pro wrestling history the full true-crime treatment in Chris & Nancy.

Go on the road with the best hockey players not in the NHL. What is life really like in North American hockey's top minor league? As told by dozens of the players, coaches, broadcasters, personnel, and owners who work a grinding schedule every winter, Chasing the Dream goes behind the scenes with seven AHL teams. Find out how players' dreams of lacing up their skates in the NHL motivate them through long bus rides and games where they're constantly gunning for a precious spot in the majors.

Changing the Game: A History of NHL Expansion celebrates an often-overlooked aspect of hockey history. The book provides comprehensive coverage of the NHL’s spread across the North American market in the 1920s along with the memorable expansions that began in 1967.

The definitive take on the McMahon family’s journey to wrestling domination

The most unpredictable and charismatic grappler of all time? The brute that made brawling an art before the term “hardcore” was coined? The confrontational businessman who fought for every penny he felt he deserved?

“Bruiser” Brody had no peers when it came to blood and guts, controversy and independence. Most wrestling promoters portrayed their top talent as exactly that kind of free-spirited, take-no-guff personality. They didn’t mean it, though — which explains why so few would admit to respecting Brody even as they featured him time and again.

Groomed since the age of eight by his obsessive father Vince Spadea, by most accounts—except Andre Agass's, who called Vince “a journeyman” at age 25—has been a success. At the start of the 2005 season, 19th seed Spadea was the only over-30-year-old player besides Agassi to be ranked in the top-20 on the world professional tennis circuit.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting pits masters of every kind of combat--street fighting, sumo, judo--in matches broadcast around the world. This book chronicles the turbulent history of MMA fighting from its inception in the Greek Olympic Games, through its glorification in Japan to its growing popularity as an American sport. Through personal interviews with legendary fighters, Krauss offers a detailed look into that world of absolute intensity, the MMA--a world of honour, vendettas, and drunken back-alley scraps.

Hockey’s rich history explored through some of its most fascinating documents